09:25 AM: It’s a gray and rainiy day today so far; temperature outside is 36 degrees.
09:35 AM: Created audio journal episode AJE-2009-02-26-09-30. I discussed further my discovery of blogs where lots of thin women hang out and how such “places” might be good areas for me to hang out in.
07:50 PM: Created audio journal episode: AJE-2010-02-25-19-32, where I talked about my new Victor Reader Stream portable player device from HumanWare. I also reviewed a therapist’s suggestions about ways to improve my match.com profile, and I renewed my perennial New Years resolution to lose weight and get better control of it.
My Dad’s next younger brother, Ray Hesley, passed away yesterday. He was 71 years old.
Aunt Lois called to ask if I’d be a pallbearer. Of course, I agreed, although I’ve never done this before. I wanted to do it for Ray but the thought of the-first-time-I’ve-ever-done-it nature of this task gave me the jitters.
I wonder if I have anything to wear that will fit? I gained some weight at Christmas, which for the most part is gone, but is it gone enough to allow me to get into my old friend the sport jacket? I don’t know. Let’s find out.
So I fetched my outfit from the clothes bins in the attic and tried it on. Goodness, it’s a bit tight to be sure, especially around the shoulders. Oh well, as long as I don’t raise my arms too high or stretch too far in any direction, it should be okay.
It was nice to hear from Aunt Lois even though the occasion is sad. I remember when Dad died in 1997, her and Ray visited him almost every day in the weeks leading up to his passing. Our two families grew closer then and I hoped that we’d stay that way. But once Dad was laid to rest, we drifted apart again. True, Ray’s health has been not-so-good the past several years and perhaps that’s why we didn’t hear from them more. But I hope that this time we can preserve the togetherness that results when families come together for funerals. I hope it survives Ray’s internment.
Attended therapy via telephone conference. Details are given here.
Question: When do I set the Copy files to iTunes Music Folder option in iTunes?
There is no correct answer here. It depends on what you want to do.
If like me, you have your music files (as opposed to the iTunes library itself) on an external hard drive, then you would probably want to uncheck this box. Why? Because if checked, all that external music will be copied into your iTunes library folder upon import. This slows the import process significantly, and your music will consume double the hard drive space as well. When this box is unchecked, iTunes makes links to the music in its library rather than copying the actual music files. Probably not what you want to do if your C drive has little space.
On the other hand, if your library is small, or you’re a novice and you actually began your music collection in iTunes, then it makes sense to check this box, just to keep the library and music together and avoid potential confusion over where your music is. Also, if you buy all your music from the iTunes store, then it’s a good idea just to keep it in the iTunes library. But again, personal preference is the ultimate dictum here.
Keeping it in the iTunes library lessens the chances of getting errors about missing files because in this scenario, people usually allow iTunes to organize music into folders by artist, and then by album. They’re not likely therefore to muck with this directory structure outside of iTunes. Further, when all the music is on the C drive, the likelihood of that drive letter changing and causing the missing music error is relatively small.
The iTunes folder is located by default at:
C:\Documents And Settings\Me\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
The iTunes folder contains the iTunes library. The library consists of several files and directories. So no, to answer your question, the iTunes library is technically not the same as the iTunes folder.
[To accomplish voice recording on the iPod, you need either a specially-wired microphone, or an Apple headset ($75) that has a built-in microphone. Typically, such units plug into the docking connector on the iPod, but can also use the headphone jack (it depends on the unit style), and you’ll only see the menus for voice recording when such a device is connected. The iPod produces mono WAV files.
For more information on iPod voice recording, see the following URL:
Well, [re purchasing the missing songs] would certainly solve the problem, in a costlier way however. If you couldn’t find the original files anywhere on your hard drive, then you probably had no choice but to repurchase, unless you had backups of your music of course.
Tom Hesley
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You can use Winamp to copy music files to the iPod. However, if you want the voice prompts, then you must use iTunes to do this.
They’ve made many accessibility enhancements in version 8 of iTunes. It works much better these days with any screen reader that utilizes the MSAA interface. You may want to test out the latest version of iTunes (8.0.2) as it is vastly improved over earlier versions.
I haven’t used the iPod as a voice recorder yet, and so can’t speak as to how accessible this feature is. But I’d appreciate any information on good microphones that work well with this feature.
You can play AAC, Protected AAC, AIFF, M4A, M4P, M4V, MOV, MP3, MP4, and WAV media files. See Apple’s website for more details on the 4th generation Nano at:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_nano?mco=MTE3MzA
While you can’t turn the volume limiter off, you can set it to maximum, which effectively removes it from the system. Just like turning it off. J
Tom Hesley
Well, these heaters didn’t save us any money. We just received a gas bill for $625. Yikes! However, in fairness to the heaters, let me list a few key facts:
• This bill was estimated; they didn’t actually read the meter last month but rather, they guessed at what it might read. They got it wrong; they underestimated our usage last month, so they billed us for the difference in this month’s statement, along with this month’s actual usage.
• To calculate your usage on an estimated bill, they consider the amount used last year, accounting for changes in average outside temperature between this and the previous year.
• It was eight degrees colder in January, 2009 than it was in January, 2008.
• Since the heaters are located in the basement, which is not insulated by the way, they had to work a little harder.
• Our primary heat (which is a 2004 vintage forced air gas furnace) is a high-efficiency model (91% efficient). The gas space heaters have a 99% efficiency rating. Some improvement, but not much really.
• We now enjoy a heated basement, which we didn’t have before.
• So, though the new gas heaters did way reduce the amount that the big furnace runs, they didn’t give any savings because we did not really replace a less efficient heat source with a more efficient one. So the gas heaters just took over making our heat, taking the load off of the main furnace. They don’t do it much better I’m afraid.
But what are nice with these gas space heaters, that we don’t get with the main furnace, are the warm floors on the first level, not to mention the heated basement space. That really takes the chill off throughout the house. Plus, our air is moister. So our noses don’t dry out and bleed as much, and static electricity is almost nonexistent when using these heaters. Now we do have to run the attic exhaust fan to keep the condensation in there down. But this only costs a few dollars a month in electricity, and it’ll probably cost even less once I install a humidistat on the fan later this year.
I’d say that though we didn’t get the money savings we’d hoped for, these heaters definitely improved the comfort level here in the house and keep us warm at much colder temperatures outside. Further, we have the added security that we’ll still get heat even during a power failure since these gas heaters require no electricity to operate. The main furnace however, does. So I’d highly recommend installing such units as a great do-it-yourself project. Just be sure to use black iron or galvanized pipe for all your gas runs, and dope all pipe fittings. Then, check them with soapy water for leaks once you apply the gas. 
Once you say yes, you’re given a “Browse For File” dialog box. You have to find the file on your hard drive using the buttons in this dialog, and then click the Open button in order for the iTunes library link to be updated. If you do this correctly, the song begins playing after you press the Open button and from then on, the song should play correctly when you select it in your library.
Tom Hesley